


all too young

by gigglesandfreckles



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: just needed some grandpa/grandbaby bonding time, so let's let em stargaze and be sad about their stupid wonderful brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26278630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gigglesandfreckles/pseuds/gigglesandfreckles
Summary: during a bout of insomnia while on Onderon, Ahsoka get some advice and insight about her Master.or Obi-Wan hears Ahsoka laugh for the first time and they get to have a snuggle and he absolutely spends the entire next day training the rebels trying not to cry thinking about it every dang time he sees her.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 22
Kudos: 334





	all too young

“It’s me... _easy_.” Obi-Wan’s hurried whisper broke through her determination.

Ahsoka breathed, lowering her lightsaber. “Sorry, Master. I heard you walking and I--”

“It’s okay,” he shook his head, motioning for her to calm down, “I should have announced myself.”

She clipped her lightsaber to the robes she almost never wore. Onderon nights were cold and she hadn’t brought enough layers.

“I thought I was the only one awake.”

“You were,” he nodded, motioning for her to sit back in her spot against the log. He dropped to the spot next to her, stretching his legs in front of him. “I sensed your unease.”

Ahsoka’s eyes widened. “The Force _woke you up_ because of me?”

The crinkles around his eyes deepened. “I never sleep well on missions anyway.”

Ahsoka had only known Obi-Wan for two years, but he hadn’t had the same wrinkles then that he did now. She worried about him.

“Well, then you must _never_ sleep.” observed Ahsoka. “You’re off-planet more than me and Master Skywalker.”

“Well, Anakin has no issues sleeping on missions, I assure you.”

Ahsoka grinned.

“What’s on your mind, little one?”

It was funny that those two words could seem so endearing from one man while so irritating from another. She knew Anakin meant them affectionately, too, but it just never had the same effect. 

Ahsoka resumed her perch on the large log she’d been sitting on before Obi-Wan had appeared. It was just outside their camp enough to not disturb anyone, but not so far that she could get in any real trouble.

Of course, Anakin would probably say that no amount of distance could prevent that.

“You can’t see stars like this on Coruscant.” she explained.

Obi-Wan replied with a hum, joining her upwards gaze.

Coruscant was beautiful in it’s own right. Ahsoka especially loved the architecture around the Temple District, always majestic and gleaming, telling stories of the Jedi of ages past.

“Sometimes I forget how small I am in comparison to it all,” she admitted, her gaze dropping to look at Obi-Wan’s long legs and how they stretched beyond hers, yet another small reminder that this galaxy was bigger than her.

Obi-Wan shifted, crossing his legs under him and Ahsoka blinked, embarrassed at being caught.

“You’re not so small, Ahsoka.” said Obi-Wan. “What does Master Yoda always say about impact?” Then, as an afterthought, “Paraphrased, please.”

Ahsoka smiled. “The acts of those who see themselves as small are the greatest of all.” she quoted, automatically.

“It’s dangerous to feel comfortable in all of this,” he motioned toward the sky, the sleeve of his rope swinging back and forth. “Once you’ve conquered it all, what do you do?”

Ahsoka considered this. “Master Skywalker wants to conquer it all,” she said quietly.

It was Obi-Wan’s turn to think, silently, for a moment.

Ahsoka drew circles in the dirt with her finger, weighing the vast differences between her Master and Grand Master’s ideologies on the galaxy. Most of the time, she was able to roll her eyes and enjoy watching their antics.

But this seemed too important.

She needed to know what was right and how she was supposed to feel. Where was the line between ambition and conceit?

“Anakin has a...different perspective than most.”

Ahsoka could tell he was choosing his words carefully. She understood why, but she wished he would say what he meant.

That trait is something she’d always admired in her Master.

“He experienced more in his life before even knowing the Order existed than you or I did as younglings. Those years are important. They shape us. You and I were shaped by the Temple and the teachings of the Jedi.”

“And Anakin?” she asked bravely, knowing he wouldn’t divulge anything more about Anakin’s past than the here-and-there details Anakin himself had divulged over the past two years.

“He was shaped by other things. Struggle, pain, loneliness.”

“But he was loved.”

Ahsoka felt compelled to defend her Master. Anakin tried his best to maintain respectful conversation when talking about Obi-Wan around Ahsoka, but she wasn’t so naive anymore. She could feel the underlying tension between the two men.

Her Master was obviously quite set in his ways. But maybe if Obi-Wan made the first move. If he would initiate an honest conversation and try to help Anakin.

“He was,” nodded Obi-Wan with a sad sort of smile, his gaze returning to the twinkling sky above.

And with those two words, Ahsoka’s need to fight for Anakin vanished. Because she knew the truth.

Obi-Wan had tried.

“Do you think…” Ahsoka chewed on her lip. “Do you think he’s okay? Sometimes when we’re not on a mission, when we’re at the Temple, he just...he seems so…”

“Conflicted,” finished Obi-Wan.

She nodded timidly, returning to her dirt doodles.

Obi-Wan Kenobi--the Great Negotiator--took a few moments to construct his thoughts. “I feel it, too. Since I first met him and he was a boy, there’s always been something...different about him.”

Different. That word seemed to keep cropping up in relation to Anakin. It seemed like such a generic word, but the more Ahsoka considered it, the more it seemed to fit.

“He never spent time in the creche or had a clan of his own--and maybe that’s my fault,” he muttered with a sad shrug, almost talking to himself at this point, “but I don’t think those things would have made the difference. It’s something else, something in him.”

“The prophecy,” whispered Ahsoka. They were the only ones in the entire camp awake, but something about this subject seemed so sacred, her voice wouldn’t let her risk it.

She immediately felt a surprised crackling in the Force around her. After looking at Obi-Wan, she knew it came from him.

“You know about that?”

She shrugged nervously, wary of being chastised. “Anak--Master Skywalker told me about it a long time ago.”

He rubbed his beard thoughtfully. “That’s surprising.”

“It wasn’t...it wasn’t a big deal when he told me. It was after Ryloth when we had that long period of leave. Masters Mundi and Reco were talking about it and I overheard. I asked him and he explained it to me,” she elaborated. “I don’t think he believes it’s true.”

“Master Mundi and Master Reco need to mind their own business,” Obi-Wan frowned. “But no, I don’t doubt that about Anakin.”

“Do you believe it?”

“My Master did,” Obi-Wan closed his eyes lightly, perhaps remembering his former teacher.

“Qui-Gon Jinn,” Ahsoka nodded, noting the shift in the energy at the mention of the fallen Jedi’s name. “But that’s not what I asked. What about you?”

Her tone was a bit too curt and her phrasing was a bit too direct. He was a Council member, after all.

But she didn’t want the Great Negotiator. She wanted the Jedi who cared about her Master as much as she did.

Obi-Wan’s eyebrows lifted at her aggression, but he didn’t reprimand her. “I do.” he said, with a small nod. It was obvious that this was a hard thing for him to admit out loud.

“I’m glad he has you.”

The corners of Obi-Wan’s eyes stretched again, as if he took pride in this comment. But his response was strictly business. “A Jedi doesn’t have anything or anyone. Possession is--”

“ _I know, I know_ ,” Ahsoka rolled her eyes, settling back against the log with a smile of exasperation.

“One of these days, you’re going to sass the _wrong Jedi_ , little one,” Obi-Wan shook his head with a quick chuckle, leaning back next to her. Their shoulders pressed against each other, a current of comfort passing between the two.

“And when I do, I’ll tell them exactly who I learned it from,” she nudged him.

He scoffed. “You don’t get to blame this on me. No, no, no. You lost that privilege when all three feet of you bounced off the ship on Christophsis and said you _didn’t want me_.”

“That’s _not_ what I--”

“See, there you go again with the sass. _Honestly_ , Ahsoka, you’re going to--” He stopped mid-sentence. Not because she had continued her verbal spar, but because of a different sound altogether.

She was laughing.

No. Giggling.

Feeling the shift in his entire demeanor, she stopped abruptly. “Master?”

He watched her with a distant, cloudy frown.

The younger Jedi closed her mouth, immediately self-conscious. “Wh--what did I do?”

Obi-Wan stared at her another moment before blinking and shaking his head. “No, nothing, I’m sorry.” He tried to pull a smile but Ahsoka was not buying it.

“ _Master Kenobi._ ”

“I don’t want to sound old,” he confided in her.

“I already know you’re old. Just tell me.”

“Very funny,” he said, bumping her shoulder with his. “Your laugh just now. It...I don’t ever think I’ve heard it before.”

Ahsoka looked up at Obi-Wan and noted how the crinkles seemed to only accentuate the sadness in his eyes now. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say.

“It’s so easy for me to forget how very young you are. Both of you.” He returned his gaze to the stars. “It’s not fair that this is the galaxy you were gifted.”

“It’s the will of the Force.” Ahsoka shrugged, repeating the hackneyed expression she’d had thrown her way so many times as a defense for all the trauma she’d witnessed

Obi-Wan closed his eyes, letting the limited light from Onderon’s moons cascade across his features. In that moment, Ahsoka thought he looked pretty young, too.

She wondered what it would be like if they didn’t spend most of their time together fighting in a war.

Ahsoka scooted a little closer to him.

Silently, he moved his arm to her shoulders, pulling her into his own robes.

**Author's Note:**

> we just absolutely do not see enough of these two getting to have the moments we KNOW they had. how can you love anakin skywalker as much as these two angels and not need to TALK ABOUT IT!!!!!
> 
> tumblr: giggles-and-freckles


End file.
